


Shredded

by Cornerofmadness



Category: Prodigal Son (TV 2019)
Genre: Anxiety Attacks, Gen, Malcolm Bright Needs a Hug, Mental Health Issues, Post-Episode: s01e20 Like Father ..., Whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-07
Updated: 2020-07-07
Packaged: 2021-03-05 04:55:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 445
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25118740
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cornerofmadness/pseuds/Cornerofmadness
Summary: Malcolm can’t hold himself together anymore.
Comments: 9
Kudos: 49
Collections: Flash Fics - PSON Whump Discord





	Shredded

**Author's Note:**

> **Disclaimer:** Not mine, Chris Fedak and Sam Sklaver owns it
> 
> **Notes:** written for the Prodigal Son Whump server prompt of ‘shredded.’

He’d been numb when he’d been brought in to the station. Malcolm didn’t even know if he was under arrest for Eddie’s murder, for assisting Ainsley in Endicott’s murder, as a witness to said murder. JT had been kind when he transported Malcolm but even more closed mouth than normal when he installed Malcolm in one interview room. He’d begged JT to take Ainsley to the Sisko Center, an exclusive mental health facility. Her fugue scared him as much as what she’d done. Malcolm didn’t know if they’d listened to him.

Here he sat alone ever since. The shakes began about two hours in. Low blood sugar, he lied to himself. The tightening of his chest, the way his breath rasped in and out told him all he needed to know. The anxiety attack of all attacks was lurking in the corner of his mind, picking at the shreds of control he had left. He was trapped here. _Ainsley needs me!_ No one was coming to talk to him. _Mother is all alone with her babies arrested!_. Gil could die alone while his whole team was tied up in the death of a monster. _I won’t survive that!_

Malcolm shut his eyes, trying to calm himself. Deep breaths. His airways refused to comply. He could smell the iron and salt of Endicott’s blood, soaked into his soul the way it soaked his mother’s couch and carpet. The terror in Ainsley’s eyes as she came back to herself, covered in blood, haunted his mind’s eye. The subtle bloat of Eve’s body from being in the water, there was no place to hide from that memory. He didn’t even get to see Gil after surgery. Was Gil even alive? He didn’t know. JT hadn’t known, had been called away to the estate before Gil was out of surgery.

Malcolm tried to call for them, knowing it was being recorded but his voice fled. Gil was dead, he knew it. He might not be going to prison but Ainsley was. Was his father dead in a Riker’s riot? How would his mother survive losing everyone at once? That thought shredded his mind faster than the steak knife had torn through Endicott’s neck and chest.

Even as the door opened and JT dragged in, exhaustion in every movement, Malcolm knew it was too late. He toppled from the chair gasping, anxiety crushing his chest. Everyone he loved was dead or about to be torn from him. Nothing could save him now. 

“Bright, breathe!” JT ordered, kneeling at his side, his hand on Malcolm’s arm.

He couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think. Helpless to stop it, Malcolm let the darkness take him.


End file.
